My Review of "Renfield"

Renfield is an action comedy that came out in 2023. When this first came out it didn't really spark any interest in me. I'm not into horror movies and they tried to really push this narrative with its advertising. This is definitely not a horror movie. It does have a ton of violence and gore but it's a dumb comedy and that's right up my alley.

The movie starts off with the introduction of Renfield. He is in a support group at a small church. While we listen to people explaining their toxic relationships he explains his situation because if you're not into vampire lore you'll be totally out of the loop.

Basically, long ago was a real estate agent that wanted to make a lot of money. In a tragic twist of fate he met Dracula during one of his deals. Dracula basically promises him all his wildest dreams and Renfield falls for it. The consequent of his decision was that he would become Dracula's familiar. This basically means he's to be Dracula's loyal servant for the rest of his life.

Over the years he's discovered that being Dracula's familiar isn't what it's cracked up to be. You have to hand over innocent people to him so that he can take their lives. Dracula also happens to be quite abusive. Renfield has finally had it with this relationship but he does he get out of it? That's really why he's at the support group.

Along for the adventure is a character named Rebecca who is curiously absent from all of the advertisement of this movie. She plays a pivotal role in the movie. Rebecca makes Renfield understand that even if you're small and weak, you shouldn't be afraid to stand for what's right. She and the rest of the support group basically inspire Renfield to finally take a stand. He will no longer be Dracula's play thing.

While this is all happening there's a huge organized crime syndicate trying to take over the city. They're pretty bad but Dracula is worse. Throughout the movie we want to see the clash between the two evil forces and it's quite funny when it does. Although, I believe there's a ton of lost opportunities with this clash. They could have also pushed on the mystique of the crime syndicate. Then again that would have pushed this movie to go way longer than its runtime.

The action sequences are quite over the top and gruesomely violent. They go all out with some of the visual "horrors". Though, the violence in media nowadays is so crazy that I felt a little desensitized already. I was able to find the humor in the violence that they depicted.

There's a lot of funny sequences in this movie and the advertising didn't play this up enough. It is definitely not what I thought this movie was going to be. I'm not saying that his movie is made to be high cinema but it is a fun watch. This is a movie you just enjoy by having some snacks and shutting off your brain. That's not a bad thing. I love movies like this because it's nice and relaxing to just have dumb stupid fun every so often.

Overall, I had a really good time with this one. The advertising really got me to think it was going to be a totally different type of movie. I'm glad I was able to push myself to watch it because it was better than I thought it would be. Those that don't like excessive violence might want to stay clear of this movie though. I would have to give this one a 7 out of 10. This is a movie I would watch again.